Croatia is obviously in for an early election, Social Democratic Party (SDP) member Nenad Stazic said on Thursday when asked to comment on the news that former Prime Minister Ivo Sanader had asked for his term as a member of parliament to be activated.
"Conflicts in the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) have paralysed the country and no progress whatsoever is being made. Sanader's latest move only deepens the conflicts. Sanader is rallying or has already rallied together a sufficient number of HDZ MPs to block the parliament's work, which could result in a failure to adopt a budget for next year and lead to the fall of the government," Stazic said when explaining his position that Sanader's plan to return to parliament meant an early election.
Asked by reporters in front of his party's headquarters what position the SDP would take on Sanader, considering expectations that he would not be inclined towards his former party and the government, Stazic said that it was a question whether Sanader would attend parliamentary sessions at all.
"What is relevant is that he has reduced the number of hands voting for this government by one - his, and as for the rest we'll have to wait and see," Stazic said, stressing that the SDP had no reason whatsoever to cooperate with Sanader.
He added that the government should have stepped down after the head of the HDZ parliamentary caucus, Andrija Hebrang, recently admitted to having suggested to Sanader to give as the reason for his resignation in 2009 Slovenia's blockade of Croatia's EU entry talks.
"The fact that the whip of the ruling party admits to having lied in parliament about a thing as important as the resignation of a Prime Minister pushes the situation to absurdity," Stazic said.
Speaking to reporters later in the day, SDP chief Zoran Milanovic said his party did not want to have anything to do with Sanader or the HDZ.
"I don't know why Sanader is returning to parliament. Formally, he has that right, but I'm not sure there is anything for him to do there."
Milanovic said his party was seriously considering the possibility of requesting a vote of no confidence in the government because it considered the current situation untenable.
Asked what he thought Sanader wanted to achieve by activating his term as an MP, Milanovic said that he did not know his motive nor was he interested in it, and that it was much more important how those who support the government, the Peasant Party (HSS) and ethnic minorities, would behave in the current situation.
They are the ones who support the government and who "assume or don't assume responsibility for the situation in the country," said Milanovic.
Minister of the Interior Tomislav Karamarko today would not comment on Sanader's request to activate his mandate as an MP, and he also declined to say if Sanader was a suspect in ongoing investigations.
Asked if his term as an MP could protect Sanader from a possible investigation, Karamarko said: "Speaking hypothetically, and I am not talking about any concrete case, mandates can be terminated."